Some former and current committee members share their favorite memories from past festivals:

Jen Freeman:

Mine isn't just a memory, it's my story. I was born during the Maple Festival to Bruce and Bonnie Barham.

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Bonnie's maiden name is Richards. She is a daughter of Paul and Clara Jean Richards of Richards Maple Products. I never drifted away from the maple. I have worked at Richards Maple my whole life. That is how I met Ken. Ken and his brother Bob were running the Geauga County Maple Festival Sugarhouse. Ken would come to Richards to get supplies. I also volunteered at the sugarhouse serving maple stirs. From there Ken and I became friends and later started dating. Ken and his family have always been into lumberjack sports. His father Jim ran the lumberjack competition at the Maple Festival for many, many years. Ken asked me if I would like to help him take it over for his dad. We ran it for a few years. Then in 2005, Ken and I went to the lumberjack arena on a Thursday night, to make sure everything was ready for the contest on Saturday. My birthday just happened to fall on that day. It was there in the arena, that night, that Ken proposed to me.

Mary Kerchelich:

I was the public relations director for about five years. During the Maple Festival in 1994 I received a phone call from "CBS This Morning" three weeks before the Festival.

At first I thought it was a joke from my brother, Mike Tvergyak, but when I returned the phone call and talked to the producer of CBS This Morning, Susan Wiggins, I realized that we were going to have our hands full trying to get everything ready for world-wide coverage.

Ed Kaminski, the former president, and I picked up the producer, camera man and director from the airport when they landed on Wednesday. Unfortunately Thursday night a snow/ice storm hit Chardon and two tents collapsed from weight. To top things off, ice covered everything on the square.

Our ax thrower, Rudy Detweiller was supposed to be at the festival at 7 a.m. so they could wire him up for the live interview at 9 a.m. When he arrived at 7:30 a.m. his car slid into the sidewalk. When he was getting out the car, he cut his forehead, blood was running down his face and they had wired me up for a live interview.

They quickly tore the wires from me and hooked Rudy up trying to patch his cut up. When Rudy went to throw the ax, the target rolled off the stand. By this time I was laughing so hard they had to cover my mouth so Harry Smith and Paula Zahn couldn't hear it in the studio in New York.

The show came off great, though, and 4.5 million viewers from around the world saw the Geauga County Maple Festival live for four minutes.

The camera also showed, Mike Tvergyak, Gene Adams and John Rieter eating pancakes with our famous maple syrup. That year we received orders for maple syrup from around the world and CBS received complaints from Vermont and Pennsylvania because they were not chosen to talk about maple syrup production. They explained that we had the most to offer.

Jim McCaskey:

I remember riding the 'Zipper' in high school with Stephanie Reardon. Well, she did get sick on the ride, thus I will never forget that day.

Sarah Park:

I have grown up in Geauga County my entire life, specifically Chardon. My father, Howard Richardson, was a late police officer from Chardon. He passed away at the young age of 39 from cancer when I was only 8 years old (this will be 19 years ago on April 29th).

My favorite memory of the festival was going up there with my mom and siblings to see him directing traffic during the festival. He was always so excited to bring us to the festival to ride the rides, have a maple stir, watch the parade, etc.

In 2002 I was chosen to be the Geauga County Maple Festival Queen and I wore his police hat during my skit and talked about how losing my father as a young girl really molded me into the woman I am today -- strong, loyal and loving. I have a lot of pride for this county and I am proud to now be the co-director for the queen's (pageant).

I hope to continue to honor my father by serving in this role for the Maple Festival and continuing to serve as an oncology nurse at the Seidman Cancer Center at Geauga Medical Center.

I am thankful that my Dad and Mom instilled in me a love for caring for people and serving our community. When I think of my father, oftentimes it is hard to remember his voice, but when I think of his face, my first memory is of him at the Maple Festival! I hold this memory near and dear to my heart and I'm thankful for this every day.